The decision was taken with an eye on next year's panchayat poll in the state and the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

The state has also witnessed incidents of communal violence in Bengal triggered by inflammatory posts on social media which also needed to be countered, Ghosh said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury stressed that the party could not lag behind the BJP and the TMC on social media campaigns when the BJP and TMC were involved in an aggressive social media campaign.

"Social media is one of the best tools to reach out to the youth of the state who are well versed with it - be it Facebook or WhatsApp. To reach out to the youth, a strong social media presence is a must," Chowdhury said.

A workshop will be conducted soon in Bengal where leaders of the Congress social media cell will train the new recruits.

The social media campaign launched by the state unit would be executed by booth-level committee members and monitored by booth-level presidents and Assembly observers, State Congress sources.

On sites such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, the party plans to highlight the "failures" of the BJP government at the Centre and the Trinamool Congress government in the state, they said.

Speeches and political messages of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi and state the Congress chief will also be carried on the social media platforms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)